


Guten Morgen, Mein Kitty Cat

by Beauteousmajesty



Category: Critical Role (Web Series)
Genre: Fluff, Gen, Humor, Jester is not frumpkin, Team as Family, early morning shenanigans, leomund's tiny hut
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-03
Updated: 2020-09-03
Packaged: 2021-03-06 21:28:05
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,289
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26275654
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Beauteousmajesty/pseuds/Beauteousmajesty
Summary: The Mighty Nein are headed to Nicodranas to discover more about Fjord's mysterious patron. It's very serious business, apart from the early mornings when it's not and Caleb watches his friends safe in the new bubble he's made.
Relationships: The Mighty Nein & Caleb Widogast
Comments: 2
Kudos: 29





	Guten Morgen, Mein Kitty Cat

**Author's Note:**

> I listened to the episodes when this is set a long while ago so don't murder me if I've remembered details inaccurately. I've never written these guys before and how are there too many of them and not enough simultaneously (also rip Yasha being away for this bit)

The thing about Leomund's Tiny Hut is that it's, well, tiny. Caleb lies sprawled amongst his allies (friends?) each night in their mess of bedrolls. They have a fire in the centre of their mess of blankets. The fire worries Caleb, being so close to the tangles of blankets, packs, and adventurers. Nott is the most flammable of all of them, with her blood stream pumping pure alcohol. He keeps her close as they sleep.

He keeps them all close as they sleep, actually. There's no other way for them all to fit in the dome. It's uncomfortable at first but he grows used to their presences - even Beau's snoring - and the inn rooms they take feel lonely once he's grown accustomed.

It certainly takes some adjusting to, much as their tents had done. Early one morning, he wakes in the dome and he feels the reassuring weight of Nott asleep by his feet and Frumpkin's tail tickling the end of his nose.

Without opening his eyes, he wrestles his arm out of his bedroll to stroke his cat, muttering little phrases to him, the way Frumpkin likes.

He is interrupted midway through a comparison between Frumpkin and a pumpkin, which he has been punctuating with strokes to the soft blob to his left.

'Do you think I'm a pumpkin, Cayleb?'

Half asleep still, he responds to Jester's sleepily teasing question without opening his eyes.

'Nein, little blueberry, Frumpkin is the pumpkin. Look at how orange he is'

The tail tickling his nose grows more agitated before withdrawing. Caleb opens his eyes as Jester replies.

'Lumpy-Frumpy isn't here, Cayleb'

She turns her head so that one of her horns nudges into Caleb's hand, her tail dancing in the air before his eyes.

He pulls his hand back with a start and half stutters an apology before he is interrupted by Beauregard's cackling from the other side of their campsite. Sitting up, he can see her laughing at him from next to Jester's abandoned bedroll. 

The tiefling appears to have rolled away in the night. Caleb maps her path around their camp and has to take a moment to realise that she's rolled over Fjord to get to him. Looking at her, there's very little chance that she had gotten up to play a trick on him. She's lying facedown in the mud, her one remaining blanket tangled sideways around her. One of her other blankets is abandoned half covering Fjord, as if it caught on one of his buckles as she passed.

Beau gathers the last of Jester's blankets and wraps it around her shoulders like a cape. She keeps laughing as if she'd never gotten into a drunken brawl with Molly's tail. She's obnoxious. She reminds Caleb of Eodwulf in that way. But she doesn't mean it unkindly.

Nevertheless, he feels his cheeks heat up beneath his protective layer of mud and he hopes nobody can see that his face is almost as bright red as his hair. He pointedly ignores Jester's tail as its tip floats around the vicinity of his face.

He untangles his legs from his muddied and threadbare blanket and moves to pull his coat back on from where it has been acting as his mattress. Moving his bedclothes lets him see where Nott has ended up in all their rolling around. His little friend has slept snugly, tucked into the folds of Jester's extensive skirts, back against his legs.

He hears a quiet chuckle by the fire as Caduceus gets the joke. The firbolg is doing something with mushrooms. Caleb hopes it's breakfast, but he's never certain with their newest friend.

Nott squirms her way out of her nest with a yawn, considering Jester for a moment, yellow eyes flicking back and forth, following the movement of the tail that is still idly flicking about.

Fjord draws their attention as he wakes himself with an overloud snore before engaging in violent combat with Jester's abandoned blanket, finally throwing it off and succeeding in hitting Beau right in the face. It's Caleb's turn to now laugh at Beau's yelp of surprise.

'Why're we laughing?' Asks Fjord groggily into the earth.

He gets two simultaneous answers to his question as Nott and Beau talk over each other.

'Caleb's got a new blue cat who left her blanket on your head'

'You got Beau right in the face with a blanket'

Beau occupies herself briefly with making her new blanket into an addition to her blanket cape. Fjord looks as if he's considering apologising to Beau before deciding against it and turning to Caleb to ask, 'how long before the bubble pops?'

'Seventeen minutes, just about. Are your mushrooms edible, Mr Clay?'

Fjord nods and the firbolg considers his mushrooms as if it's the first time he's seen them.

'I hope so. Although them not being so might ruin breakfast.'

'I'll risk it. I want more than blanket to eat this morning.' Beau springs up with an agility Caleb doesn't have as she moves to inspect the mushrooms.

'Is it only mushrooms?' asks Nott, disappointedly looking for some kind of breakfast meat.

'Its all we have left'

'Don't worry Nott, tonight we will be in Nicodranas and my mama always has the tastiest food and the best pastries and I'm so excited to show you all!'

Jester has fully woken herself up in her excitement and Caleb watches her try and hunt down the rest of her blankets, finding no bedroll underneath her. She climbs back over Fjord to reach the empty space where she'd gone to sleep the previous night, finding that, too, neglected by her blankets.

It takes her another moment to spot them acting as Beau's new cape. Once she does she throws herself at the monk.

'Beau, I can't believe you stole my blankets. I'm cold.'

It is not cold in the bubble but Beau makes a deliberate point of draping Jester's blankets around both of their shoulders as they settle down to investigate the offering of Caduceus' mushrooms.

Nott dashes across the dome and returns with mushrooms for both herself and Caleb. Caleb sees her disappointment at the mushrooms so he fishes out his last piece of pocket bacon for her. Her smile is so bright, even if she hates it, that Caleb has no option but to smile back.

Caleb summons Frumpkin as they settle down for breakfast and watches his cat explore the various bedrolls in the dome, settling on Beau's to watch the swishing of Jester's tail. It amuses Caleb to note that as Frumpkin grows intrigued by his tail quarry, his tail swishes at equal pace to Jester's.

There is quiet conversation across the dome as they eat. It will grow serious once more when the bubble pops, but for now Caleb eats his mushrooms and tries not to think about how soft Jester's hair was as Beau laughs, tossing her head back to rest on Jester's shoulder.

He drags his attention away from the two women as he realises he's staring, catching Fjord distracted by Jester as he turns. Caduceus is patiently waiting for him to resume describing the vastness of the sea.

The bubble pops as they finish their mushrooms, Nott nibbling at her bacon. There is a rush to fold blankets and feed the horses before they are on the way again, the clattering of the cart chasing away any moment of peace and quiet they may have had.

As Caduceus steers them onto the road, Beau leans closer to Caleb and says, 'I can't believe you thought Jester was your cat'

And just like that the ribbing begins and Caleb returns to a bright pink. It is going to be a long day.

**Author's Note:**

> This was going to be 5 times Caleb thought members of the mighty nein were Frumpkin and one time it was but it did not turn out that way. Oh well.


End file.
